Silhouettes: Silhouettes sweep at WCC Championships

Thursday

Jan 31, 2013 at 12:55 PMJan 31, 2013 at 1:04 PM

West Central Conferences & GFW InvitationalIt was a pretty good week for the Yellow Medicine East Silhouettes. Two competitions and they collected two conference championships and four victories across the two dance disciplines.

“We’ve been doing really good,” commented Silhouette head coach Chris Nerdahl after her team returned from the West Central Conference Championship and the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Invitational lugging a case full of trophies and medals. “We won conferences and that was exciting and then at GFW we danced pretty good and were able to catch Duluth Marshall and that was a huge deal for the girls.”

By Eric J. MonsonSports Editor

West Central Conferences & GFW InvitationalIt was a pretty good week for the Yellow Medicine East Silhouettes. Two competitions and they collected two conference championships and four victories across the two dance disciplines.

“We’ve been doing really good,” commented Silhouette head coach Chris Nerdahl after her team returned from the West Central Conference Championship and the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Invitational lugging a case full of trophies and medals. “We won conferences and that was exciting and then at GFW we danced pretty good and were able to catch Duluth Marshall and that was a huge deal for the girls.”

For the second year in a row, and since the WCC saw the departure of dance power St. Cloud Cathedral, the Silhouettes swept the divisions; earning their second straight conference titles in both Jazz and High Kick.

At conferences, YME was followed in high kick by Montevideo in second-place and then Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd. In Jazz, YME outpaced BOLD, who hosted the event and third-place LqPV/D-B.

At GFW the Silhouettes again won both divisions edging out conference rival BOLD and state rival Duluth Marshall in both. Duluth Marshall had won five straight state titles in Jazz before Aitkin broke their streak last year—and they finished second in state—with the Silhouettes finishing third. But the Silhouettes leap frogged them Saturday to take the varsity Jazz title and edged BOLD and Duluth Marshall, respectively, in High Kick.

The last time the Silhouettes met Duluth Marshall, it was at the Alexandria Invitational in early January. There they finished in third place in the Jazz division behind last year’s state champion Aitkin and runner-up Duluth Marshall. In Kick the Silhouettes finished third behind Aitkin and Lac qui Parle Valley. Since that meet, YME has beaten LqPV/D-B three times in Kick and Duluth Marshall once in Jazz.

The Silhouettes now have just one competition, in Lakeview, before Sections.

“We’re in full fledged final drilling mode right now,” said Nerdahl. “This is our final chance to clean up on all the little things. Our choreography is done—obviously there are some little changes coming like they do every year, but for the most part it’s just getting every little thing that much closer to perfection.”